I like mine with a side of sliced choma and some sukuma wiki

May 25, 2017 6:40 AM

The History of Porridge in Bantuphone Africa, with Words as Main Ingredients
posted by infini (5 comments total)

This is really interesting. I'd never before encountered the idea of using words for food (eg, older versus newer words, loan-words, etc) to get at questions of how and when a food entered a culture.
posted by Dip Flash at 6:53 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

Wow, what a terrific article—I've stolen it to post at LH! And the whole issue of Afriques from which it comes, Manger et boire en Afrique avant le XXe siècle/Eating and drinking in Africa before the 20th century, looks like it's full of good stuff. Thanks for the post!
posted by languagehat at 8:08 AM on May 25, 2017 [2 favorites]

Dip Flash, this is only the second time I've come across an engaging paper using this approach. The previous one looked at the introduction of ironworking. Also fascinating. A less academic overview.
posted by infini at 8:16 AM on May 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

I didn't notice that the link above was borked within the edit window. Here is the paper on ironworking and language again
posted by infini at 8:43 AM on May 25, 2017

I don't know the proper Xhosa, Zulu, Sotho, Tswana etc term for porridge, but the porridge in South Africa made from mealie meal - ground corn - was (when I was growing up and maybe it still is) called 'samp', a name which came from 'South African Maize Products' printed on the sacks.
posted by Flashman at 10:28 AM on May 25, 2017 [3 favorites]